Fornication in the Late Qing Legal Reforms

Chinese laws were long conceived as supplements to moral teachings, and moral misconduct was often given legal penalty. For example, voluntary sex by a woman outside of wedlock, whatever her marital status, was defined as a criminal offense from the Tang dynasty onward. But the late Qing reform introduced a clear legal distinction between the concepts of fornication and adultery, implying that sexual activity by unmarried women and widows should go unpunished. This article examines how the debate in the National Assembly and the press shifted from concentrating on specific statutes to deliberating on broader topics, such as the traditional connection between law and morality. Framed as a conflict between two different kinds of law—one based on legal principles (fali), the other on moral teachings (lijiao)—the debate over the fornication issue helped to crystallize awareness of the implications of Westernstyle reforms for Chinese society.